Amsterdam: More Than Just Coffeeshops

...and by coffeeshop, you know I mean a shop that doesn't actually specialize in coffee, right? Anyway, while there are plenty of those, there's also a lot more to Amsterdam that people seem to forget about due to its reputation fraught with debauchery.

Before Amsterdam, though, you are all aware of that very American holiday that always takes place on Thursdays, the one with the pilgrims and the Indians... Yes, we had ourselves a Very Spanish Thanksgiving! I made two pumpkin pies courtesy of the ingredients my family brought, everyone else made dishes as well, and we came together at my professor's apartment for lunch. Some of our Spanish professors came as well to enjoy the American merriment, and our Australian friend was excited to try his first piece of pumpkin pie.

On Friday, we headed off to Amsterdam, but we got in late so we didn't actually do anything there until Saturday. The first thing we did was go to the Anne Frank house: the actual place where the Franks hid during WWII, now converted into a museum. We got to climb the steep stairs up to where Anne and her family lived, never able to go outside or open the thick curtains that kept out all the light. It was definitely a powerful place to go, and it even had Anne's original diary on temporary display.

To cheer ourselves up, we spent the rest of the day exploring the city: walking around by the canals, almost getting run over by bicyclists (everyone there rides around on a bike), and checking out all the shops, since as it turns out the street our hostel was on is jam-packed with shopping. That evening we tried to find our way to the red-light district, and we got to a street that had a lot of rather x-rated stores, so I'm assuming we were close, but I don't know if we ever quite made it. Oh well, seeing prostitutes in lit-up windows isn't really on my to-do list anyway.

The next day we walked over to the Rijksmuseum, which is an art museum featuring plenty of Dutch painters, including Rembrandt. It was cool, but disappointingly small for the price. Several paintings featured a sport called "colf," which appears to be golf on ice (my thoughts: what a double-whammy, you're playing a boring sport AND you're going to fall down). Anyway, there were other museums that would have been cool to check out--the Van Gogh museum, the Torture Museum (featuring an assortment of Medieval torture devices), or Madame Toussaud's wax museum, but alas, our pockets could not handle the stress of all the entrance fees, so we declined.

Verdict: Amsterdam is a gorgeous city, and there are quite a few touristy things to do for those who aren't just going on a pot pilgrimage, but a few days there is probably enough to satisfy the average traveler. Now, pictures:

One of many canals, and some typical Amsterdam architecture.

The canal at night.

A Blues Brothers themed coffeeshop (I couldn't resist).

Next weekend: Roman ruins, catacombs, the Colosseum--that's right, friends, the last stop on our European tour is ROME!

London: Like Seattle but with Accents

No, I've never been to Seattle, but I hear it's gloomy and rainy all the time there, which is exactly what London is like, except they have cool English accents there. But let me back up a bit because the first stop this weekend was a Friday trip to Toledo, a nice Spanish town with a castle, a huge cathedral, and the ubiquitous winding cobbled streets. Unfortunately we didn't actually do a whole lot but walk around. We went inside one monastery and we got to see the painting El Entierro del Conde de Orgaz, which we've studied in my art class. We also tried marzipan, which is apparently huge there, and considering it consists mainly of sugar and almonds, I loved it.

As soon as we got back from Toledo, my travel buddy and I took off for the airport, where we caught a plane to London. Our first day of sightseeing wasn't actually even in London. Interestingly, half the people on our tour were Spanish, so the tour guide repeated everything he said: once in English, once in Spanish. So my travel buddy and I got to hear and understand everything TWICE. I think we were the only bilinguals on the trip. Anyway, first stop was Windsor Castle, which had a massive spread and was different than a lot of the castles I've seen in Spain. After Windsor we went to Stonehenge, which was the main reason I booked this tour in the first place, and it didn't disappoint. Of course, we spent our time there trying to shield ourselves from the wind and freezing rain that started up, but it was still cool to see the mysterious ruins. Last stop on the tour was Oxford. Did you know that Oxford University doesn't actually have classes, but rather every student is privately tutored? I didn't. Seems like an odd setup to me, but it's a very sought-after school, so there you go.

After recovering from the cold, wet day in our cozy hostel beds, we set out the next day on a free walking tour. Our tour guide was a London native who was absolutely hilarious: he had plenty of interesting and funny anecdotes to share about the sights and was very animated the whole time, even after a downpour hit us and blew everyone's umbrellas inside-out. I was a bit less enthused after I stepped in a massive puddle that went up to my ankle and ended up walking in squishing shoes for the rest of the day, but it was still a good tour.

On the tour, we saw things like Buckingham Palace, and we got to hear funny stories about the terrible security there, like how a 12-year-old boy managed to live there for a year before they caught him and kicked him out. On another occasion, a mad drunken Irishman popped in one night, drank half a bottle of wine, and wandered into the queen's bedroom at 6:00 AM for a chat. Since the queen is for the people, technically it's not an offence to break into Buckingham Palace because the people deserve to be there, so they charged him with stealing half a bottle of wine.

After Buckingham Palace we saw some other things, including Big Ben, Westminster Abbey (which is gorgeous), and a building of Parliament. Then we heard the story of November 5 when Guy Fawkes and co. planned to blow up Parliament. Then we learned how to properly draw and quarter someone, but I won't get into all the gory details here.

After a whirlwind (literally--it was really windy) weekend, I got home to Spain and finally put on dry socks. But you don't care about that; what you want is to see some pictures!

Cathedral of Toledo

Stonehenge


Big Ben

Westminster Abbey

Next weekend: Amsterdam!

Andalucía: the most beautiful place in Spain

That's not an exaggeration. Southern Spain really is gorgeous and has a lot of character. The Butler trip to Seville and Cordoba was exhausting, busy, educational, and fun. First we went to Seville, where we saw the cathedral, the Giralda (which is the famous tower), the palace where the king and queen lived, and a museum of Baroque art.

Much of the interesting stuff about this trip has to do with my Art History class (no surprises there). We studied the cathedral of Seville and the Giralda, so I appreciated seeing them in real life and already knowing the history and style. We got to climb to the top of the Giralda and look out over Seville, and after climbing the Eiffel Tower that was a piece of cake.

As much as I loved Seville, Cordoba was easily my favorite of the two places we went. Cordoba is such an interesting mixture of Muslim and Spanish influences. Our first stop was the Mezquita de Cordoba, which is a famous mosque and was the most important building in Europe in the 10th century. When the Christians conquered Spain in the late 15th century, they kicked out the Jews and forced the Muslims to convert, and they took the mosque for themselves and built a cathedral inside of it. Nowadays masses are held in the cathedral but Muslims can't go pray there because it is now officially a Christian building. Then again, there probably isn't a lot of demand, since the population is 99% Catholic.

That night we went to a flamenco show, and I have to say, I've never been more enthralled by dancing in my life. It was amazing. It was 2 hours long but I could easily have sat there for longer. Spanish guitar is also unbelievable.

The next day we went to the Alcazar, which is a palace where royalty once lived. Now it's a museum with mosaics from Roman times and a huge garden. The weather was beautiful, so we spent some time walking around the garden, and for the rest of the day we had time to browse the shops and explore the city.

Time for some pictures:

La Giralda in Seville.

La Mezquita de Cordoba.

Me in gardens at the Alcazar in Cordoba.

Next weekend: Get your Harry Potter geek on, we're heading to the motherland!

Mi Familia

Last week my family was here--which you probably only care about if you're my family. We had great time though, and I think they enjoyed coming and seeing my life in Spain that they've read about here on my blog. My host mom invited them over for paella, we had a Mexican fiesta at my teacher's house, we ate a ton of churros, we took a trip to the Archeology Museum and saw pictures of a "perfectly preserved" 5,000-year-old man they found in a glacier (I put that in quotes because he was quite gooey), we walked around Alcala, and that was all before the weekend.


Friday was my day trip to see the castles, and to my surprise, my family was allowed to come with! That made it way more entertaining, with me having to translate everything (like I had done at luch with my host mom... saying everything twice between stuffing food in your mouth is fun!) and with my sister taking pictures everywhere with the pink pony (I'm not explaining, ask her if you're curious). Anyway, we went to Manzanares, which just makes me think of apples because manzana is apple in Spanish, and saw an impressive castle there. We also saw an impressive rainbow:



Next stop was Segovia, only this time we didn't have to walk 2 hours from the train station in the middle of nowhere! We had 2 hours free for lunch though, so we sat in the cold, trying to shield ourselves from the wind, and ate our sandwiches on the ground like a bunch of hobos. Then we went in the castle, and we got to go all the way to the top as well and look out over Segovia. It was about 150 stairs and they were all part of a spiral staircase that actually makes you dizzy coming down. This is us on top of the castle:



Saturday we spent 3 1/2 hours in the Prado Museum, with me giving a mini-tour of the paintings I had studied in class (hey look, art history DOES come in handy!). And then on Sunday we went to el Rastro, the big flea market in Madrid, and the Royal Palace, which is just ridiculously ornate on the inside. There's even an entire room made of porcelain. But we could only take pictures from the outside:


We also frequented three places throughout the week: Balcones de Alcala, which is the bar/restaurant that has the best sangria in my opinion, another restaurant where we became amigos with the friendly waiter, and of course la Media Pinta, the Irish pub. It was quite an eventful week, and I had a blast seeing my family!

I have a feeling these next 5 weeks are going to blow right by because I've got quite the lineup of trips in store... so keep checking back to see all the exciting places I'll be going! This weekend I'm heading south with the Butler group, where we will see a mosque, a cathedral, and some flamenco dancing!

Cuenca and Spanish Halloween

You know life in Spain is good when it's November 1st and 73 degrees outside.


Aside from that, life in Spain is good because you go on interesting class excursions that are free and because America has successfully infiltrated European holidays and given the Spanish the joy of Halloween. So thanks for the weather, Spain. And you're welcome for the holiday.


This Friday I went on a trip with my art class to the city of Cuenca, which is a quaint old city on a mountain, surrounded by a river. I'm told Toledo has this same setup. Anyway, it's a really pretty place to see. First we went to the Abstract Art Museum, which was... interesting. I guess I should preface this by saying I just don't get abstract art. Some of it can be cool, but when you have a painting comprised entirely of two splotches of color that look like you threw up on the canvas, I just wonder what I'm supposed to do with that. Plus our tour guide really liked the sound of her own voice, so I may or may not have zoned out a few times. Here's an example of the kinds of things we saw in the museum:



After the museum, we had some free time to walk around, and then we went to the cathedral of Cuenca. It's always cool to see old buildings that you've studied in class in real life. This cathedral has a unique look and is from the early Gothic period. I could bore you with all the particulars of the architecture (thanks, Art History!) but I think I'll just let you enjoy the view.




The next day was my favorite holiday. Luckily, as I mentioned before, American traditions are sort of becoming a fad in Spain right now. My host mother told me that three years ago, nobody was celebrating Halloween. But this year I saw on the news video from the Halloween parties around Spain (one girl in costume actually shouted "Viva Halloween!" at the camera), and I was delighted to go out and see all the kids in costume! In the evening there was a free outdoor play which is a yearly tradition, in a plaza with walls that made it look like you were in a castle. It was interesting but we left halfway through because we couldn't follow what was going on. Later we went out to the bars and found that many of them were decorated for the holiday, and one even gave us free skeleton masks and witch hats. Here's a picture of Media Pinta, the Irish pub we went to.

Even though I missed the pumpkin carving and the fall actually looking like fall (all the trees here are still green...), I ended up having a great Halloween in Spain! VIVA HALLOWEEN! I hope everyone back in the U.S. had a good holiday too. Next weekend I have a Friday trip to see some castles, and... hmm, there's something else... oh, that's right. MY FAMILY WILL BE HERE! Can't wait to see you guys!